Duke Philipp of Württemberg


Philipp, Duke of Württemberg was a German prince, head of the Roman Catholic cadet branch of the dynasty which ruled the Kingdom of Württemberg.

Biography

He was the son of [Alexander of Kingdom of Württemberg|Württemberg (1804-1881)|Duke Alexander] and of Princess Marie d'Orléans, a daughter of Louis Philippe, King of the French. His mother died when he was a few months old, causing him to be raised by his grandparents in Paris. When he was ten, the royal family of France had to flee from France, staying in exile in Great Britain.
Duke Philipp became engaged to Duchess Sophie in Bavaria, sister of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria. But the Duke dissolved the engagement. He married Archduchess Maria Theresia and the couple had a splendid palace built at the Ringstrasse in Vienna. They moved in during 1865, but as Duchess Marie Therese never liked the palace it was sold to a banker and investor in 1871. Two years later, the renovated palace was opened on the occasion of the 1873 Vienna World's Fair as the Hotel Imperial. To this day it remains one of the most famous hotels in the world, and while renovated multiple times it has retained many elements of the original neo-Renaissance elements in the Ducal Palace.
After selling their palace in Vienna the couple bought a much smaller city palace named Strudelhof. They had a grand villa built at Altmünster on the shore of the Traunsee, not far away from the Emperor's summer residence at Bad Ischl. Around 1900, the couple moved to Stuttgart where they lived near their sons, at the Prinzenbau.
Upon the death of his cousin Duke Nicholas of Württemberg in 1903, he became heir presumptive to the royal throne of Württemberg until his death in 1917. But he was ten years older than King Wilhelm II of Württemberg, and so his eldest son Duke Albrecht was considered and raised as the next king. On 29 November 1918 Württemberg's monarchy was abolished in the collapse of the German Empire following World War I, while his kinsman of the senior branch of the dynasty, Wilhelm II, was still king.

Marriage and issue

In 1865 Philip of Württemberg married Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter of Archduke Albert, Duke of Teschen and Princess Hildegard of Bavaria. They had five children:

Ducal branch of the royal dynasty

Philip of Württemberg belonged to the fifth branch of the House of Württemberg, descended from the seventh son of Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. On the extinction of the eldest branch in 1921, the Catholic ducal line remained the only dynastic branch of the formerly reigning family. The House of Württemberg's two morganatic branches - that of the Dukes of Teck, and of the Dukes of Urach - were genealogically senior to the Ducal branch, but had been ineligible to succeed to the throne.
Philip is the direct ancestor of the current claimant to the Kingdom of Württemberg: Wilhelm, Duke of Württemberg.

Honours